Five things Cam never expected to learn about Sam
by healingmirth
Summary: Like the title says. Wear whichever 'ship glasses you want. Written for sg1 five things on livejournal


1. Anything at all beyond the mission reports

Cam didn't really believe that he'd get her back to the SGC. She said she'd be there if the world needed saving, and damned if he was going to hope for a crisis just because his plans had gotten spoiled.

2. That the rumors about her and General O'Neill hadn't been just rumors

People like to talk, even well-disciplined military people. Especially well-disciplined military people, when there was something to say that didn't involve security clearance. He had assumed that this was just one more rumor, the unfortunate but natural result of a highly successful woman whose work no one understood, if they even had clearance to get past the cover story, to explain her acceleration up through the ranks. No one believed the hype about her – he wouldn't have if he hadn't seen so much of it first-hand.

But when he saw them in a room together for the first time, he saw that what they meant to each other went way beyond the already tightly-knit team they'd served on for years.

Cam had been in the air force and around the stargate long enough to realize how fast things can go wrong and how bad, and he knew enough from the mission reports to realize how much they'd sacrificed over the years, and how they deserved a share of that 'life on Earth' they spent all their time protecting So he was a little bummed that his flirting with Sam would only ever be that, but he'd get over it, and would try to keep a lid on the gossips, for them, because they deserved some time to themselves.

3. That she respected his leadership.

SG-1 had a sort of well-known problem with authority, and certainly had more autonomy than any section or team he'd been a part of. He was well aware that he was no Jack O'Neill, and Sam was the golden girl, and had a frightening amount of tactical knowledge filed in with all that science. So yeah, Cam had never had a real intention of trying to lead. More of a coaxing, really, but the first time something went pear-shaped and he snapped out an order while they were under fire and she followed it? That was...kind of awesome.

4. That she didn't know that she snored

Months' worth of nights in the field, more than a few naps caught on car trips or civilian flights, times he caught her dozing in the lab, and it wasn't until she was sprawled out on the couch next to him, passed out halfway through a DVD that was a failed effort at having a life outside the mountain than anything they really wanted to watch, that he realized Sam snored. He let her be, easing up off the cushions and padding into the kitchen for another beer, and resolving to razz her like crazy about it when she woke up.

The part he hadn't been expecting was that when he poked at her about it, that she'd be dead serious about how much she did not snore. She hadn't snored since she was in middle school – since before her mother died. She insisted that he could ask anyone – her dad, Daniel, Pete. He let it drop, silently satisfied that she was the first person she'd trusted enough to relax around in 25 years.

5. How much it sucked for her to be a galaxy away

It was a reality of life in any service that you spent much of it far from the people you care about. The wonder of SG-1 had been that wherever they'd gone, family had gone with them, and Cam had gotten so used to it that he hadn't realized how special it was until they went their separate ways again.

He kept in touch with Sam as best he could, as best as any of them could. There was plenty for both of them to write about. A battalion of marines and a small army of scientists in a floating city seemed to produce an endless number of anecdotes, and Cam liked being her sounding-board as she figured out the people now under her command. He kept her in the loop of SGC gossip and politics that were opaque from the far side of a databurst, and told her which movies weren't worth the waste of hard drive space.

He was sure he was in her thoughts as much as she was in his, but even the most well-written letter wasn't the same as hearing her voice, or having her nearby.


End file.
